The Welsh Government has published a Written Statement: Speeding up planning, outlining measures the Government is taking to accelerate the planning system, with a particular focus on infrastructure delivery.
The Home Builders Federation welcomes the Welsh Government’s recognition of the need to improve the speed of the planning system. However, it is disappointing that the measures set out focus primarily on infrastructure, when a number of recent reports have identified the wider planning system as a major barrier to housing delivery.
This includes the Welsh Government’s own Affordable Housing Taskforce report and recommendations to support the provision of more homes for social rent, which highlighted planning delays as one of the key constraints on increasing housing supply.
In 2024/25, a total of just 4,631 new homes were delivered in Wales, the second-lowest annual total since records began in 1974 and significantly below the 7,400 homes per year identified in Future Wales: The National Plan as required to meet Wales’s housing needs.
In our Increasing Housing Supply in Wales report, published late last year, HBF set out its recommendations for increasing housing supply in Wales, including how to enhance the efficiency, capacity and speed of the planning system.
Mark Harris, Planning and Policy Advisor, Wales at the Home Builders Federation, said: “The current shortfall in housing delivery in Wales cannot be addressed through infrastructure reform alone. Delays and complexity elsewhere in the planning system continue to delay the delivery to new homes.“
A planning framework that is slow or unpredictable undermines delivery, regardless of the level of housing need or policy ambition.
“The home building industry is ready to increase delivery, but this depends on a planning system that is adequately resourced, efficient and focused on enabling homes to be built. HBF is keen to work constructively with Government officials to ensure policy commitments translate into increased housing delivery.”